Month: March 2022

Ming-Chi Kuo revealed in his latest investor note that the Apple iPhones launched this year will miss out on periscope cameras and the under-display Touch ID. The analyst predicted that the long zoom lens might arrive next year 2023, while the fingerprint scanner is not making it until 2025.

We are already stepping into April, meaning the new iPhone launch is about five and a half months away. Since we are not getting a UD sensor or a periscope camera, what are we getting? Well, the iPhone 14 is coming with two punch holes, an improved main camera sensor, a thicker body and the obligatory new chipset.

However, Kuo previously stated the iPhone 14 Pro duo might be the only one in the 2022 flagship family to have the next-gen A16 Bionic chipset, while the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max might stick with the A15.

The non-Pro models are also expected to not have ProMotion displays, which is the fancy name Apple puts on all screens with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The reason is the manufacturer BOE cannot match Cupertino’s demands for panels and the iPhone company decided to scale down the orders.

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A pair of new Realme phones were spotted on China’s TENAA certification database. These are the RMX3372 and RMX3574 and both phones have their core specs and images populated in the listings.

RMX3372 brings a 6. 62-inch AMOLED with FHD+ resolution and a 16MP selfie cam. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 870 chipset with either 6/8 or 12 GB RAM and 128/256 or 512GB storage. The back houses a 64MP main cam alongside an 8MP ultrawide snapper and a 2MP macro shooter. We can also observe it packs a 5,000 mAh battery though charging speeds are not provided. Additional features include an integrated fingerprint scanner and a microSD slot.

Realme RMX3372

RMX3574 is expected to be a new member of Realme’s Q-series in China and will bring a 6. 58-inch FHD+ display and an 8MP selfie cam. The phone will be powered by an unnamed 5G chipset with a 2. 4GHz main core. It gets 4 or 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage which is expandable. The rear cameras include a 13MP main shooter and a 2MP helper. The phone will bring a side-mounted fingerprint scanner while its battery is listed at 5,000 mAh.

Realme RMX3574

Source 1 * Source 2 (both in Chinese) | Via

The iQOO Neo6 we’ve been hearing about since last December finally has a launch date – April 13. The Neo6 will be announced in China next month, but we don’t have confirmation on its global debut yet.

iQOO is promoting the Neo6 as the next-generation gaming flagship but hasn’t divulged its specs yet. However, thanks to Geekbench, we know it will have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC at the helm with 12GB RAM.

The iQOO Neo6 will run Android 12 out of the box, likely with OriginOS on top, and rumors claim it will come with a 6. 62″ 120Hz FullHD+ AMOLED screen, 4,700 mAh battery, and 80W wired charging.

We’ll likely learn more about the iQOO Neo6 as we inch closer to its April 13 unveiling.

Source (in Chinese)

Today WhatsApp has announced it’s working to bring some big improvements to the way it handles voice messages. If you’re wondering why the focus on voice messages, there’s an easy explanation, as the company revealed that a mind-boggling 7 billion of them are being sent every day on WhatsApp.

We’re now getting support to pausing voice messages and then resume them when they’re ready. There’s also a preview function which allows you to listen before sending it.

The most important improvement is chat playback. This allows you to listen to voice messages outside of the chat you’re part of. You can also multitask, read, and reply to other messages. WhatsApp has finally responded to this request for voice messaging.

There’s also “remember playback” coming, which seems incredibly useful too: this basically lets you pick up where you left off when you return to the chat if you pause a voice message you were listening to.

Then there’s fast playback for forwarded messages, another self-explanatory feature that’s been long overdue (since you could already play at 1. 5x or 2x on ‘normal’ messages, but not forwarded ones).

A waveform visualization, which shows a visual representation the audio from the voice messages “to assist with the recording”, was also unveiled by WhatsApp.

Aside from this, all the other features mentioned above will roll out “in the coming weeks”.

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Google is working on automatic tracker detection for Android. It’s a feature that allows your phone to detect if there’s an unrecognized smart tracker near your phone for prolonged time.

This feature prevents malicious people from installing smart trackers, such as Tile’s trackers or Apple’s AirTags on uninformed individuals and using them for their location.

The functionality was discovered by 9to5Google after decompiling the Play services APK. The code revealed the line Unfamiliar device alerts, followed by a Unfamiliar Tag Detected Notification with three smart tag options – Tile tag, Finder tag and ATag – two of those are clearly aimed at Apple’s AirTags and Tile’s trackers, we haven’t a clue what Finder refers to.

If your phone sees an unidentified tag near you, it may be able to call it and inform you.

Apple already has this functionality built into iOS, where an AirTag will play a sound if it’s separated from its owner for more than 24 hours. Both Apple and Tile have Android apps that can detect an unauthorized smart tag near your phone – but those require manual scanning and it could take up to 10 minutes.

Having automatic detection in Android is the best option. We expect Google to share more about the feature at its I/O conference in May.

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While Samsung announced its Galaxy A53 5G almost two weeks ago we just got confirmation that Brazilian units of the phone actually ship with a bundled 15W charger. Online retailer Americanas is one of the authorized Samsung resellers in the country and a Samsung official store team member confirms the phone ships with a 15W charger in the device’s FAQ page. Strangely enough the official Samsung Brazil page for the Galaxy A53 does not mention anything about the in-box contents.

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G FAQ page

We’ve also come across an unboxing of the device from Brazilian YouTube which does show a larger retail box compared to the one seen in other markets complete with with the bundled 15W charger.

It remains to be seen if Brazil is the only country to have its Galaxy A53 units shipped with chargers of if buyers in other regions are in luck too. If more information becomes available, we’ll keep you informed.

Source (in Portuguese) | Via (in Greek)

The vivo iQOO Neo6 will be announced in the following weeks, sources from China claimed. Reports about the chipset were contradicting each other, but today the phone appeared on Geekbench, shining a light on the SoC – it will be Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which carries the codename “taro”.

vivo iQOO Neo6 alleged images

The vivo V2196A smartphone was benchmarked with 12GB RAM, and the listing also revealed Android 12 out of the box. The OS is likely to be OriginOS Ocean in China but FuntouchOS on the global markets, if the device ever makes it there.

The same phone has been spotted by TENAA and we have a few details on its specifications. It will most likely have a 6. 62″ AMOLED with Full HD+ resolution, and a 4,700 mAh battery. We also expect 80W fast charging, as the V2196A was certified and rated with 20V/4A speeds at 3C.

Via

Dyson is best known for its vacuum cleaners, fans and other such appliances. The company has unveiled its first wearable – a pair of noise-canceling headphones – but it doesn’t stray too far from its area of expertise.

You see, this product, dubbed the Dyson Zone, has a removable attachment that is a miniaturized version of Dyson’s air purifiers for the home. The system pulls air from the ear cups of the headphones, pushes it through a 2-stage purifier that uses electrostatic media to attract particles from the air while keeping the filter small and light.

The “visor” as Dyson calls it sits close to the face, but doesn’t actually touch your skin. Design on the Zone was started in 2016, before the pandemic, so it wasn’t designed with masks in mind, but the company does provide attachments that can be used with FFP2 masks.

To help you understand how Dyson needed to reduce its tech, these are a few prototypes that were created over time. These are only a few, there were 500 or so prototypes made before settling on the final design.

The Dyson Zone can adjust itself to deliver the right amount of air whether you’re sitting on your desk or exercising. Also, it is designed to block wind from blowing uncleaned air towards your nose and mouth.

The headphones feature noise cancellation and neodymium magnetics. However, not much is known about the audio quality of these headphones. They will deliver up to 40 hours of music playback and quickly charge over USB-C (60% in 20 minutes). The visor can be removed and the headphones may still function as normal headphones.

But if you use the Zone with the visor attached as intended, it will last 4 hours and a half at the minimum purification setting and 1 hour and a half at maximum. Although the Dyson Zone has not yet been launched, it is expected to be available later in this year. Prices will be revealed later.

Source | Via